The Wellbeing of Nations : Meaning, Motive and Measurement.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (291 pages)
Intro -- The Wellbeing of Nations -- Contents -- List of tables and figures -- Preface -- Reference -- 1 What is national wellbeing and why measure it? -- 1.1 Motivation: Why measure wellbeing? -- 1.2 What is individual wellbeing? -- 1.3 Aspects of individual wellbeing -- 1.4 How to measure individual wellbeing? -- 1.4.1 Basics of measurement -- 1.4.2 What is measured matters -- 1.5 Properties of measurements -- 1.5.1 Validity -- 1.5.2 Reliability -- 1.6 Objective or subjective? -- 1.7 Combining multiple aspects -- 1.8 What is national wellbeing? -- 1.9 And how to measure national wellbeing? -- 1.10 Structure of the book -- References -- 2 A short history of national wellbeing and its measurement -- 2.1 The good society and philosophies of the role of government, from ancient times -- 2.2 Utilitarianism -- 2.3 The American constitution -- 2.4 Official statistics - statistics about the state and about the state of society -- 2.5 National accounts and GDP -- 2.6 More to life than GDP -- 2.7 Social indicator movement and measuring quality of life -- 2.8 Health and wellbeing -- 2.9 Rise of measurement of psychological wellbeing (life satisfaction, happiness, worthwhile lives) -- 2.10 The Easterlin paradox -- 2.11 Taking note of the change in the quality of the goods and services we use -- 2.12 Capability approach to quality of life (Sen) and the human development index -- 2.13 Social capital and public value -- 2.14 Limits to growth and sustainable development indicators -- 2.14.1 Sustainable development indicators -- 2.14.2 Green growth indicators -- 2.14.3 Natural resource accounting -- 2.15 Commentary -- References -- 3 Recent developments: Towards economic, social and environmental accounts -- 3.1 Mismeasuring our lives: The report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. 3.2 Replacing the Millennium Development Goals -- 3.3 A new global movement? -- 3.4 Commentary -- References -- 4 Measuring individual wellbeing -- 4.1 On quantification -- 4.2 Single measures of wellbeing -- 4.3 Combining aspects of wellbeing -- 4.3.1 Causes, effects, and correlates -- 4.3.2 Subjective components of wellbeing -- 4.3.3 Weighted sums -- 4.4 Components of individual wellbeing -- 4.5 The frailty of memory -- 4.6 The devils in the details -- 4.7 Conclusion -- References -- 5 Preparing to measure national wellbeing -- 5.1 Towards a user requirement for measures of national wellbeing and progress -- 5.2 Towards a framework to measure the progress of societies -- 5.3 Constructing measures of progress and national wellbeing: Identifying and meeting user requirements -- 5.4 Commentary -- References -- 6 How to measure national wellbeing? -- 6.1 Drawing on the national economic accounts -- 6.2 Extending the national accounts -- 6.2.1 Consider income and consumption jointly with wealth -- 6.2.2 Give more prominence to the distribution of income, consumption and wealth -- 6.2.3 Broaden income measures to nonmarket activities -- 6.3 Indicator sets describing social and environmental conditions relating to wellbeing -- 6.3.1 Improve measures of people's health, education, personal activities and environmental conditions -- 6.3.2 Quality-of-life indicators in all the dimensions covered should assess inequalities in a comprehensive way -- 6.3.3 Surveys should be designed to assess the links between various quality-of-life domains for each person, and this information should be used when designing policies in various fields -- 6.3.4 Statistical offices should provide the information needed to aggregate across quality-of-life dimensions, allowing the construction of different indexes. 6.3.5 Sustainability assessment requires a well-identified dashboard of indicators -- 6.3.6 The environmental aspects of sustainability deserve a separate follow-up based on a well-chosen set of physical indicators -- 6.4 Survey-based data on subjective wellbeing -- 6.5 Developments in measuring national wellbeing and progress around the world -- 6.6 Important issues in the measurement of national wellbeing -- References -- 7 Wellbeing policy and measurement in the UK -- References -- 8 Conclusions -- 8.1 Progress -- 8.2 Measuring wellbeing -- 8.3 New technologies, new data? -- 8.4 Beyond the economy -- 8.5 The future -- References -- Appendix: Sources of methods and measures of wellbeing and progress -- Cross-national measures -- Cross-national developments and methodologies -- National, regional and local measures of wellbeing and progress -- Further reading -- Index -- EULA.